Castle in the Sky
by Sapphire X Dreams
Summary: Below the kingdom of the clouds, anomalous things happen. The princes are bittersweet, the princesses are vivid knights, and happily ever after is unheard of. If the world below clouds is so odd, what secrets does the castle in the sky hold?
1. Where The Nightmare Begins

**A/N: **Another Naruto fanfic meant to last quite a long time. There are a lot of bizarre events and deviations from the original plot, which makes it _slightly _AU. This story was originally supposed to be fantasy, but I decided against that.

_Castle in the Sky _takes place a bit after the beginning of the timeskip.

**Disclaimer: **Kishimoto Masashi owns _Naruto_ and all of its characters. _**Mercurylove **_owns Caroline. **_Rokudo Mukuro Fan Haku-chan_** owns Chrome Mukuro Mitsuki. _**Sakima Uchiha and Mei Ketsueki **_owns Sakima and Mei. _Tears of Remembrance _owns Namida. _**Byakko koumori **_owns Sashimi. _**Sapphire X Dreams **_owns Sayuri. _**Yumi Seiji **_owns Yumi.

_**WARNINGS: **__OCs, blood, character death, language, __SLIGHT__ AU, deviations from original plot_

* * *

He wasn't looking back. He was just going to run. And when his feet got tired, when he felt as if he was going to collapse, when he couldn't breath anymore,

He was going to keep running.

There was no way they were going to take his heart. He wasn't a monster... was he? No! He wasn't! Sure, people called him one, but he wasn't. He was just like everyone else, right?

Wrong.

If he was like everyone else, he wouldn't be being chased, would he?

His heart pounded, resonating in his ears, actually succeeding in making his body tremble. He was scared. But why? He could easily kill what was after him. Blood would be splattered in a trice. He would be safe, he wouldn't have to be afraid, he wouldn't have to run.

But wasn't that why people called him a monster in the first place? He spilt blood because it was enjoyable? He loved agonizing screams because they made him feel... _alive_.

They made his soul feel... lighter, if you will. It eased his worries and troubles knowing that he could kill all who would try to murder or hurt him. And he could protect himself without even lifting a finger.

Why was he running?

He had forgotten the reason, but he wasn't going to stop, no matter how much his heart pleaded. It hurt. His entire chest hurt.

Badly.

But he wasn't stopping, he wasn't going to stop. _Ever_. He was prepared to run until he died.

_Little did he know, his pace had reduced significantly. _

He wasn't looking back. He was just going to run. And when his feet got tired, when he felt as if he was going to collapse, when he couldn't breath anymore,

He was going to--

He tripped and fell on his face. And as soon as the pain began setting in, fingers began wrapping around his leg, dragging him off into the darkness.

Still, he didn't scream, what good would it do? Who would come help him? Who would save him? No one was out at this time of night. No one cared.

Everyone thought he was a monster. Who would help a monster?

"You will be of use to me," his captor sibilated, "Now that I've finally caught you."

And that was it.

He had been running for all he was worth. Running until his feet got tired, running until he felt as if he was going to collapse, running until he couldn't breath anymore.

Now, he had lost the battle. And despite what he had said, despite how desperate he was, despite his high will not to have his heart stolen from him, he had stopped running.

For good.

* * *

"Is there any other information about that last disappearance? In Sunagakure?" Yumi asked impassively, placing the books the Hokage had requested on the desk.

"No," said Kage nodded, keeping her face and tone serious. "That's been the third capture yet." She drummed her blood-red nails on her desk wearily.

That was obviously not the last thing Tsunade had to say. Yumi waited for the proper response she knew was coming. When it finally did, Tsunade started by bursting into a grin. "But this time... the captors weren't that clever. Shizune!"

In seconds, the meek assistant, equivalent to Tsunade's lady-in-waiting, was by her side, trembling and secretly wishing she wouldn't yell so loudly or stridently. "Y-Yes?"

"Give me the map around the kingdom of Otogakure."

"Y-Yes, ma'am!" In seconds, Shizune had the map up and ready, letting Yumi

scrutinize over it like a computer scanning data. "I have a mission for you." The blonde woman straightened up in her chair, smoothing the creases of her gray tank top.

"N-Not Otogakure, Tsunade-sama! You can't send her there!" Shizune quickly began, trying to make her superior reconsider, for what reason Yumi had no idea.

Otogakure was notably the most secretive of all of the shinobi nations, aside from the Bear Country. But the only reason the Bear Country kept to themselves was because of that star of theirs that they valued so highly.

"Quiet, Shizune!" her voice was sharp. "The captor traveled from the kingdom of Sunagakure, then through the Bird Country, Iwagakure, and Takigakure to get to Oto. Of course, you could just head north to get to Otogakure, but I would like you to take the same route our captor did to get to Oto."

The blue-eyed girl continued staring, occasionally blinking, but not showing much emotion. All the way through Suna, Tori no Kuni, Iwa, _and _Taki.

"What did the trail that was left behind look like?" Yumi inquired. She was still scanning the map, gauging the maximum amount of time it would take to get through each kingdom.

The results weren't pleasing. It would be a painfully long trip.

_Damn, and I had been hoping I'd get something pretty easy after having to carry all of those books. _She eyed the pile of the revolting objects she had had to carry up three flights of stairs.

"Hmm... Left behind, there were granules of discolored sand. Unlike the normal sand of Suna, this sand had more of a golden tinge rather than the light pale and soft-textured sand. This 'golden sand' was also more grainy and rougher in quality."

Yumi nodded, her expression still dull. She used the time of silence to slide her azure eyes around, looking at everything in the room for a few seconds or less, still waiting for additional information.

"It takes two months to get through each village at standard human walking pace, time for resting and lodging included. For a normal shinobi going at a standard _shinobi _pace, probably a month and a half, with significant lessening of the amount of rest and lodging, of course.

"However, I expect you to report back to me whenever you can. Understood?!"

Yumi was quick to nod, not wanting Tsunade to scare Shizune further. "P-Please lower your voice, Tsunade-s-sama..." Shizune offered, still shaking a bit.

"I expect you to be outta here by noon," Tsunade turned, ignoring her black-haired assistant completely. She crossed her arms, smirking pleasantly at Yumi, waiting for her to head out.

* * *

"Damn, I hate chores. 'Sayuri, go pick up the trash in Iwa's paltry ponds.' 'Sayuri, go adjust the rocks near the freakin' ravine. We don't want them to fall on anyone.' Who the hell would be stupid enough to go so close to a freakin' ravine, anyway?"

And at that moment, the blue-haired girl who had been reprimanding and mocking her village had fallen straight into said ravine. The Iwa-nin skidded down the ravine at a speed a bit too fast for her liking, dragging rocks and dirt down with her.

She landed right on her butt, instantaneously feeling the sting of injury. She had landed only a sparse few millimeters away from a rock that looked threateningly spiky.

The Iwa-nin was about to begin ranting once more when something snatched her attention instead. She retracted her hand from on her sore and unorthodoxly-used landing pad.

"Huh?... Sand?" It took her a while to put the pieces together.

"I landed on a _sandy rock_?!" That made her jump right away, panicking as she brushed her backside off furiously. This wasn't the type of sand from rocks. "But... this is Iwa... Why would there be desert sand here?"

* * *

"You should be knowledgeable about all of the shinobi codes of conduct by now. Shinobi Code of Conduct Twenty-Five: No emotions in battle. Shinobi Code of Conduct Four: A shinobi must not change or nullify their allegiance

to their Kage, feudal lord, or village leader. Shinobi Code of Conduct Thirty-- You're not listening are you, Namida?! I can see it written all over your face!"

Truthfully, Namida had been slightly dozing with her eyes opened, but she had heard the just of the situation. And after all, she _was _just heading on a mission to _Iwagakure_. Iwa wasn't anything more than a one-day walk! She'd be there by sunset even.

"I'll be leaving now," she allowed herself to bow slightly before turning and taking her leave. Her mother just watched her go, her face drowning in nothing but deep despondency. "Goodbye, Namida."

"Goodbye, Mother."

_~X~X~_

As expected, she was in Iwa, quicker than expected, actually. The reason was probably because she hadn't taken any breaks along the way-- though she _had _been _walking_. She was still proud of herself, knowing that she had entered the village just as sunset started drinking up the blue sky.

A _bleep_, _clang_ and _bang _interrupted her faint train of thought. "Come to think of it, I had heard some yelling and a few sirens when I first entered through the village's borders..."

Another loud _bang_, then screams and shrieks of rage and horror. She was pretty much in the heart of the village at that point, which was absolutely empty and quite peaceful, despite the chaos going on in god-knows-where.

She was holding the scroll she was ordered to deliver.

Because the Earth Country was one of the Great Shinobi Nations, they could keep the scrolls of the smaller villages, like the turquoise Takigakure one in her hand. The rule couldn't go both ways, however. In other words, all of the large shinobi countries kept their scrolls secretly to themselves.

_I'm just standing here. _She suddenly came back to life. Turning her golden eyes upward, she noticed the only other person around had also frozen (_a village citizen?_) in the middle of walking. She was looking around, holding a wooden bucket of water, looking as dumbfounded as Namida felt.

"What the hell?"

Realization hit Namida like a heavy sack of bricks then. _This is the _heart _of the _village_... Where _is _everyone?_

And then, as if on cue, from behind buildings, someone zoomed past, laughing. Not too far behind were two ANBU members in pursuit.

Namida barely had time to sidestep the three-- in fact, the one being pursued stopped right in front of her. "Hey, hold this for me, will ya, hmm?"

He was blonde with a large fringe covering his right eye. His eyes were ice-blue. He was only a bit taller than she was-- about a two inch difference.

He pressed a scroll into her hands, darting off without anything but a smirk as a parting gift.

The ANBU were after him in a second. "What the hell is going on here?" The same stupefied girl finally spoke. Her voice had become distant closer to the end of her sentence, hinting that she must have ran after them.

Namida looked back down at the dark orange scroll in her palms. That strange blonde had just stolen Takigakure's scroll in exchange for Iwa's 'sacred' one. This must have been the reason the ANBU were after him.

But now she had it. Perfect...

* * *

Yumi had went past the guards and entered Sunagakure a while before. Dry, waterless, insufferable Sunagakure. True, she had already mostly steeled herself for the unbearable heat, but this was just ridiculous. She took hold of her dirty blonde hair, and gingerly ripped out a string of fabric from her shirt to use as a makeshift ponytail holder. (Her hair had been sticking disgustedly to her neck, and she decided to she needed to fix that.)

The dark golden sands began to fade into a seemingly normal town. A seemingly normal town with hardened _sand_. The only good difference was that the weather was much more bearable, and a tranquil breeze ushered by.

"Excuse me, where would I be able to find the site where the Sand citizen was abducted? I'm from Konohagakure and I've been sent by the Hokage to investigate this case." Yumi held up her navy-colored hitai-ate as proof to the guard.

Said guard glanced at the forehead protecter bearing the Leaf symbol with zero interest, messing with his glasses as he did. In fact, he looked a bit like Ebisu, though he was dressed in traditional Suna attire.

"Follow me."

Yumi fell into step, trailing behind him as she perused over the village and all of its qualities. She relaxed a bit, letting herself fall behind.

'Ebisu' lead her about twenty minutes away, pointing towards a narrow path merely squashed between two buildings. If the path was _that _narrow, it _must _have been hard for the victim to get away. She had taken note of several other twisting pathways on the way. It had also been a kid that was the victim. He must have gotten confused or something...

"Down through here," 'Ebisu' nodded to her, motioning with his hand. "Thank you." Without another word, 'Ebisu' was gone, leaving Yumi to gaze down the slender, dark alley. It seemed ominous, to say the absolute least.

The pitch-black shadows that were cast against the sand from the tight walls were portents of death, plain and simple. There was remaining stains of blood on the walls. Had the victim been killed?

No, that wasn't a possibility here. It was said that the quarry had been sought after for some kind of power, they wouldn't just kill him.

Blue eyes looked back at the dry blood on the walls once more. Maybe there had been a fight between the two. The victim _had _been a shinobi, a child, but a shinobi no less.

She took a step forward, the stench of blood immediately invading her nose. It was faint, but still strong enough to make her gag.

"I wouldn't go down there if I were you. There are monsters down there."

She had felt an almost completely suppressed chakra behind her, eyes widening only slightly by the added voice. There was something strange about this chakra that she felt. There wasn't much of it, and it was only residing in _one part _of the stranger's body.

With chakra in only one part of the body, that could only mean one thing.

"You don't have a chakra circulatory system..." Yumi trailed off, turning towards the stranger behind her. He stood motionlessly, staring levelly back at her, head cocked to the side. _How is that even _possible_? _

She checked him over once more, trying to sense any more chakra in any more places of his body.

No such luck. Her previous hypothesis was correct. He _didn't _have a chakra circulatory system. How dangerous could he be without one? She pondered, lacing her fingers around the ring of a kunai just in case. She wasn't going to underestimate this freak just yet.

"What makes you say that? That there are monsters through there?" He gave her a curt, non-verbal response: pointing down the narrow path. And soon enough, she saw for herself.

Bodies. Grotesque, ugly masses coming out of the woodworks, groaning and bringing the noises of the dead along with them. They certainly were deformed masses; she wasn't even sure if they were human! (_Are those _arms _jutting out of that one's back?!_)

"Oh, great." The blonde barraged the kunai that had been in her hand only seconds before at the nearest of the creatures. It made perfect contact, right between its eyes. That discharged a dead groan of either pain or anger (Yumi wasn't sure) from the creature as it plummeted down in a melting pile.

When the creature became immobile and laying face down, her blue eyes alighted to something behind its right ear. Some kind of strangely shaped and oddly familiar mark.

Another vacant moan.

Her head snapped around to see the other awaiting creatures, but she didn't get to complete the process; a large _head_ propelled from behind her to dodge an oncoming attack to her front.

"The hell?" She turned around, seeing the same stranger as before, standing there. Okay... so he had just launched a _head_ to protect her. How... noble? And gross.

"Of all people, a _jounin_ should know when not to let their guard down."

She decided she hated him, whether he protected her from harm or not. She let the comment slide, though. She usually did with stuff like that. Besides, this wasn't the time to answer him, anyway.

She turned back to him, analyzing his attack pattern. Had he _thrown _that head by hand?

* * *

The next moment, the same two ANBU --accompanied by a nosy, blue-haired scapegrace-- burst into the clearing, scanning the area for their man. It wasn't too hard to find the mess of blonde hair in the large forest.

Dodging the shuriken thrown at him, the blonde leapt into the tree behind him, dropping two spiders into a bush, awaiting his jutsu to set off later. One of the ANBU launched himself into the same tree, taking on a fighting stance.

The blonde grinned savagely, tossing what looked like a white bird into the air and enlarging it. Vaulting onto his creation, he took to the skies, dive-bombing the poor ANBU.

Without a single word and barely any attempt to get away, the large bird caught the ANBU in its mouth, swallowing him.

Strangest yet, the blonde also allowed himself to be swallowed by the large creature.

"Huh?!" Sayuri (previously mentioned blue-haired scapegrace) backed up, mouth open. "He just got _eaten_ by his own bird!"

_~X~X~_

Inside the bird, it was rather dark, and there wasn't much space to move around. Not only was the space suffocatingly close, but the battlefield was inside an already-large mass of chakra-absorbing clay. All chakra exchanged inside would be absorbed by the clay, making the explosion _that_ much more dangerous and _that_ much bigger. Bad choice for a battle arena-- for the ANBU member.

Said ANBU member pulled out his own kunai, aiming for the blonde's face, but instead stabbing deeply into his shoulder. _Maybe if I kill him --his name's Deidara, right?--, I can get out of here._

The blonde --now identified as Deidara-- bit back a wince, roundhouse kicking his opponent squarely in the chest, forcing him back. Once backed up against the bird's esophagus and still trying to realize just what was going on, he was met with a sharp punch across the face. Probably an effort to get him to dislodge the kunai buried into his shoulder.

Instead, the ANBU quickly regained his balance, deepening the kunai wound until the only thing seen was not even half of the handle. This time, Deidara allowed himself to wince, though it wasn't very loud. "Well, I guess that's one arm out of commission, hmm."

At that moment, sunlight streamed onto both of their faces. The bird's beak was now forced open, with the other ANBU peering down at the two.

_And this is why I hate ANBU. So damn persistent! _Deidara thought bitterly to himself, backpedalling. Looks like it was time to detonate this bird. He switched hastily and discreetly (at least, he _hoped_ it was discreetly) with a _Kawarimi_. With his arms behind his back, he ripped off a clump of clay and popped it into his mouth.

Through the beak, Deidara high-tailed it out of there-- just to be met with a ball of lightning to the face. He immediately hit the ground, but was up in the next second, glaring daggers at the blue-haired girl who had just attacked him.

"What do _you_ want?" He didn't seem as particularly happy as before. But she couldn't blame him, his face was now singed and bloody. She opened her mouth to say something, but was cut off seeing Deidara's fingers form a hand seal. With a spike of chakra, the enormous bird behind them promptly exploded.

Her blue eyes widening; the ANBU had been still inside.

She was too late in turning around, Deidara was gone, out of the field of her vision. Jerking around, the only thing she saw was him yank the kunai from his shoulder, followed by the sickening sound of bloody flesh.

_That must have hurt... _

She dashed after him, forming the hand seals to some kind of jutsu that would stop him in his tracks.

Fortunately (for her), he was abruptly stopped from the front.

Only inches from his nose, Deidara was met with a rather sharp sword. He didn't dare move. Glancing upwards, blue eyes made golden.

Sayuri had stopped then, finishing her hand signs, palms outwards. "_Suirō no Jutsu." _Nothing happened, however, but if Deidara dared to move, she would imprison him.

Smirking, Deidara lifted his fingers. He had eaten that self-absorbing clay, and it hit him like a sack of bricks when he remembered just how much chakra the clay had absorbed. But it was too late then. The jutsu had already been activated.

And everything promptly exploded.

Namida's sword was knocked out of her grasp as she was thrown off, bodily connecting harshly with a tree.

Sayuri was also blasted off, hitting the ground with a yelp. A sicking _crack_ resounding in her ears.

Deidara tumbled literally head over heels at the force of the explosion. He collided solidly with a tree, then with the ground. The rest of his body was painfully numb. From his crash landing, he felt every last ounce of air knocked out of him. And that was the only thing he was going to be feeling for a while as his gave way to unconsciousness.


	2. Get Out Alive

"I've got to get out of here... I wish Kimimaro was here... I hate this!"

He huddled into a ball on that small bench of his. Not only to heighten the drama of what he was feeling, but also because he was feeling cold. His cell was cold.

Even though he had spent over two years inside this rusty cell of his, he had never felt so cold or lonely. He huddled himself closer in a vain attempt of warmth.

"I've got to get o--" "Juugo! Quiet down!" Said prisoner looked up from between cell bars, those rust-colored eyes seeing cold, heartless red ones.

Standing before him, unsympathetic and soulless, was his warden, Uchiha Sasuke. He always had those special eyes turned on. Always had his kekkei genkai, the Sharingan, activated, seeing every move, every gesture made from inside Juugo's tiny, frigid cell.

His curse mark spread instantly. What pleasure it would bring him to gauge out those Sharingan eyes and drop them to the floor!

With a certain battle cry of "Die!", Juugo altered his arm in a spiked piston-like ram, lunging at Sasuke from behind the bars. To defend himself, the Uchiha coolly placed a hand on the bars, sending _Raiton _chakra surging through them and electrifying his assailant.

Only slightly singed, Juugo fell to the ground with a breathless groan, the curse mark quickly receding from his face.

"Next time... I won't go so easy on you." With that, the damned Uchiha left. With his back turned, Sasuke allowed a smirk that only belonged on the face of a sly bastard like himself.

* * *

Sayuri awoke to a quickly disintegrating darkness. The sky and clouds were a light gray with a few dark gray hues.

She opened her eyes slowly, deciding that it was indeed twilight. Her body felt sore for some reason. And she willed herself to get up, but knew that pain would follow right after.

_What happened here? _she thought, trying to think over the past events of earlier. After resting a while longer (and fighting with herself to get the hell up), she managed to turn on her side. That in itself hurt tremendously.

Blue eyes lowered to a blurred body she couldn't recognize at first.

_Who's that? _It took energy that she didn't have, but she finally managed to focus her eyes more, and saw a complete mess of yellow.

_That must be hair... _she surmised bitterly, now only slightly remembering what happened.

_That was the bastard that left me sore-- damn him! _

After a while more of throwing extra curses at the unconscious body to her left, she decided that she was still too stiff to walk. So she crawled on hands and knees over to him, albeit quite slowly.

When she came close enough to feel _un_comfortable, she couldn't help but stare dumbfounded at him for a while. It almost made her suspect that he would jump up at any moment and scream "surprise, hmm!"

Contrasting from her inane suspicion (because everyone knows unconscious bodies cannot do any such thing), he remained still. Deciding she was safe from any unwanted attacks, she crawled a bit closer, noticing that his hair was in quite a mess.

It was sprawled around to each side, and a large amount of it was falling into his face, covered in blood and sweat.

She absently reached over and brushed it away, resisting the strong urge to yank it harshly. Then, her eyes drifted down to his shoulder. It was also caked in dry blood. _Oh yeah... that kunai wound... _she mused bored.

She went lower, to his hands.

"What is _that_?!" she gaped at the strange tongue on his palm, shuddering instantly. _He had used clay... Did he mold it with those mouths?_

Then she heard a footstep behind her.

_

* * *

_

Namida stared down at the blue-haired girl as she jerked around. "Oh, it's just you..." She gave a sigh of relief. Then, she broke out into a wide grin, exclaiming, "I'm Sayuri! What's your name?"

Namida narrowed her golden eyes in thought. Was this 'Sayuri' girl planning something...? She was too quick to accept her.

"My name is Makoto," she lied smoothly.

The name had been given to her out of nowhere. There was no way she was going to use her _real _name. She knew nothing of this kunoichi _or_ of this village in general. There was a chance of 'Sayuri' being a spy and tracing her back to Takigakure.

This blue-haired girl was a complete dingbat. She had automatically given away her name and had dropped her guard until she heard footsteps. But then again... this was _her_ village, she could afford to give away her name in this territory.

Her eyes slid over to the leftover and charred lumps of hardened clay from what used to be a bird. Then, one ANBU member. He was hammered into the ground, his neck bent at an impossible angle. His leg was bent _backwards_ partially around a tree, and his mask was covered in blood, dirt, dry clay, and melted flesh. His face was completely melted off, revealing a few decaying cheekbones. She didn't want to know where the eyes could have gone...

"Hey," Sayuri blinked, her eyes gazing at the same thing Namida was. "Where's the other ANBU? ...Maybe he's alive! Maybe he got flung somewhere into the forest. We should go look for him," and she immediately stood up, then winced.

Namida flicked her golden eyes downward to the blonde. "What about him...?"

Any smart shinobi worth their salt would have simply slit his throat and moved on. But a cunning and mischievous shinobi would probably want a hostage and some answers from said captive. Sayuri, mind you, usually was driven by the first thought that popped into her head, so her decision was rapidly becoming more and more apparent.

Namida stared at the other girl; she had a weird look on her face.

The cerulean-eyed girl leaned back over the blonde, grabbing his arm, she bent his wrist back and forth, stopped, then did the same motion until a _crack_ was heard.

Grabbing the other wrist, she did the same, and Namida heard the same _crack_. Now both his wrists were broken.

"That should teach him," the Iwa-nin smirked and turned back to Namida. "Now, we should find that other ANBU member."

Namida just faintly nodded, and the two headed northward. And not even two steps later, Sayuri turned to Namida with a bright smile.

"Now... tell me again... What's your name?"

* * *

Caroline tilted her head back slightly. "A castle in the sky..." She closed her eyes, then reopened them again, turning away from the window. "Ojisan, is there any such thing?"

"Tch. No," was the Raikage's reply. "And stop calling me Ojisan."

"Why do you say it's not real, Ojisan?" the black-haired Kumo-nin inquired, innocently tilting her head to the side. He shot her a look, then cleared his throat.

"Isn't there something you could be doing?" The Raikage shot her another look before dipping his _fude _back into its _suzuri _and brought it to the scroll again.

She blinked innocently again. "No."

He perked his ears at that before scrambling around for something on his desk. "Here. I have a mission for you."

The Kumo-kunoichi walked towards the desk, peering to look as her kage scribbled down the rest of the message on the scroll, made a hand seal, then stamped his palm down. He didn't hesitate to quickly wrap it up, tie it, and shove it into her hands, barking out, "Deliver that to Konoha."

She looked down at the scroll, tugging on the tie on it slightly. "What is it for?"

"I sealed a jutsu inside it. Don't open it. It's not for you."

She looked down at the scroll and then back up at the white-haired kage. "Are there any other mission statistics?"

"Hmm?" he grumbled. Then again came a lame reply, "Uhh... don't die on the mission. Yeah, that's all. Take however long you want. (This was a lie.) If you don't return in a month, I'll send a team after you."

_You think it'll take me months to deliver this?_ Caroline thought skeptically, giving the kage a look.

"Couldn't you have just sent a messenger bird for this job?"

"Human feet are faster than those of an animal."

"That's a lie and you know it."

"Get moving."

Huffing, she decided to drop the conversation and leave. She uttered a "Bye, Ojisan," before leaving, making sure to quickly close the door.

"Stop calling me that!" she heard him call, but the door was all ready shut.

She loved getting the last laugh.

* * *

"_Death and pain are the enemies of man." _

Sakima had always heard that from the other shinobi of her village. That fact had been drilled into her at a young age.

"Stupid." Sakima bent over the male she had just killed. "I don't mind all the blood, but when it sticks to my fingers that pisses me off."

But she couldn't care less. It was a Jashinist's job to kill, and pain and death were welcomed with open arms.

She believed that all the Yugakure citizens just repeated that philosophy because they were a bunch of egoistic, greedy tourists who thought they knew everything. The tourists that had filled up Yugakure all seemed to look down on people like her.

_Too busy leading their 'lavish' lifestyles, I suppose._ Sakima told herself. But all that was beside the point.

She bent downwards, grabbing onto her scythe's hold and furiously ripping it from the corpse's slippery flesh. Upon inspection of the weapon, her face contorted into a look of disgust.

"Ew..."

She cleaned the scythe of its blood by swiping it through the air a few times, then stabbed herself, falling to the ground.

Though her eyes were closed, she wasn't dead. She had just gone into 'ritual mode', and she quickly uttered a curt prayer to her 'god' before letting her mind drift.

_

* * *

_

Around the time when the stars rolled out onto the blanket of sky, Sakima's silver eyes snapped open, pupil immediately retracted by the light of the stars.

She sat up, looking around.

"Damn it!"

She had moved a bit too quickly and had dragged the scythe (still buried in her chest) across the dirt below.

Regarding the pain of the movement, she cursed under her breath, then wrenched the weapon none-too-gently from her chest. That made her utter a small groan, but otherwise, she said nothing.

"I fell asleep again..." she decided, trailing off. This wasn't the first time she had during a ritual, either. Luckily, no shinobi had sneaked up on her and ambushed.

When she peered to her right, she saw the corpse still lying in the dirt. It had already begun to rot.

After staring in silence, she reached into her back pouch, retrieving a small book and pencil. The book was full of names of the people she had killed and the people who were _going_ to be killed.

She didn't really want to be called a bounty hunter, but since she traveled alone, she had to do _something_ that would keep food in her stomach. (Even though eating wild berries in the forest was nice, sometimes she liked to treat herself to curry.)

Pencil in hand, she crossed off the name of the man that laid beside her, then glanced down at the next person on her 'hit list'.

The name _Kasaiken_ _Kochou _was printed.

* * *

Yumi scanned the alleyway of corpses, her face its usual perfect mask for her weariness. The creatures had seemed limitless. Once fifty of them had been killed, two-hundred more appeared.

The task of killing them all was too tiring to do alone. But of course, she had had help.

She glanced back towards the man without the chakra-circulatory system. His form had completely changed!

Now he himself looked like some kind of demon, but she could still pick up on his chakra pattern, and was able to decipher him from the other monsters.

As soon as her eye met his, he whisked around and _left_. Nothing more done or said, he just _left_.

It wasn't like Yumi to go chasing after people and questioning them, and at first she was going to let him go. However, she needed information about this case. He seemed to be educated enough, and he had helped her out with those creatures, too. It was very unlikely he was on their side if he had been killing them off alongside her.

"Excuse me," she caught up with him (he wasn't very fast...), her tone as serious as his. "Might I ask which village you are from?"

"What does that information have to do with you?" he snapped.

"I'm doing an investigation on the case that happened in that alleyway. Do you have any information on it?"

"..."

"What village are you from? Are you Konoha's ally or enemy?"

"That doesn't concern you."

"I respect your privacy, but if you are an ally of Konoha, then you should clearly state such." _Then I could finally stop talking to you..._ she groused mentally.

"..."

"Could you at least tell me your name?"

"What might yours be?"

"Seiji Yumi of Konohagakure."

He paused, almost as if he were thinking about his next move.

She stared, trying to squeeze _some_ information from him. And at last, he convinced himself that no harm would come to him if he told her, so he did.


End file.
